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TL;DR: For Tamers coming back, the changelog is at the bottom of the post. Sorry this was posted a bit late! This group is for those of us who suffer from procrastination, "the action of delaying or postponing something". Or, more specifically "the act of ruining your own life for no apparent reason". I thought it would be a good idea to get together with other serial-procrastinators and tackle this bad habit together. Concepts taken from this brilliant article on waitbutwhy.com A point based game to beat the instant gratification monkeys, help our rational decision makers get out of the dark playground through the dark woods and help both of them enjoy themselves on happy playground territory (or the rainbow of flow, if we get lucky) together. If that sentence didn't make any sense to you, go read the article (including part 2). Do it now. Don't wait until later. (Unless you're procrastinating from some other thing you should be doing right now, then do that thing first and read the article right after that.) So, now that we're all on the same page and know what's going on and who keeps us from our goals, let's teach our rational decision makers how to tame a dragon monkey!!! Monkey Tamers United Step 1 - Figure out which bricks to lay Take a task that you find yourself procrastinating on a LOT but that is actually really important to you. If you've done some challenges you probably know which of your quests give you the most trouble. If you don't, go by what's written in the article or decide for yourself. You could even chose several things if you're feeling confident. Make sure you have a clear plan of what task it is that you will not procrastinate on any longer. Then break it down into smaller tasks, if necessary. The idea is to end up with nice 30 minute bricks that you can lay down one after the other. Make sure you phrase those tasks in a non-icky way. Step 2 - Figure out when to lay the bricks Designate a certain timeframe for brick laying. It could be an hour at 9am every day, or wednesdays from 6-8 pm or any other timeframe that works for you. These first two steps are supposed to be a tool to help you be successful. If you'd rather go at it without the planning or in between doing other stuff, that's totally fine. Step 3 - Lay bricks and earn points When the time comes to lay your bricks, put them down. CONCEPTS The goal is to score higher than the monkey. Your score depends on how you lay your bricks: Productive Brick For every brick (30 minutes of focused work, not disturbed by the monkey), you will get one point. It does not matter if you lay these bricks right after the other or if you do other (productive) stuff in between. Even if you over-estimated the size of your bricks and still have work left after 30 minutes, don't fret, you still get the point. Adjust your brick sizes for next time (or live with the fact that you won't finish the task with one brick... it's up to you). Halfassed Brick If you're not happy with how you set the brick, because the monkey and rational decision maker kept dragging you in and out of the dark woods, you'll end up in mixed feeling park and your points will suffer. Monkey Poop If the monkey should manage to take over the steering wheel so much that you can't lay the brick at all and end up in the dark playgrounds, the monkey gets points instead. Of course this is all up to your reasoning, but I think you'll know whether you're in the dark woods or the dark playground (procrastination anyone?). Be honest with yourself. If you didn't finish your bricks for the day, any bricks not laid become monkey poop... Of course, if you manage to procrastinate for longer than you were supposed to have time for, feel free to add more poop, lol. Once the productive bricks are all done that day, you don't have to track any more and are free to go wild! About taking breaks You can take scheduled 5 minute breaks every brick (so you'll work 25 minutes, then have a 5 minute break. Or you could work 50 min and have a 10 min break. Taken from the Pomodoro Technique ). Just remember that the monkey will do his very best to drag you out of the woods during break time. It might help to have a plan for how you spend the break. Do what works best for you. It might also help immensely to actually set a timer that lets you know when it's time for bricks and time for breaks. There's lots of apps for that EXPERIMENTAL: Alternative way to track Productive Bricks For rewarding task completion instead of time a.k.a. "I always forget to track time". DIFFICULTY MODES Choose your own mode. Easy: +1 point per brick, +0.5 points per halfassed brick, x5 monkey points per monkey poop = The original system Normal: +1 point per brick, +0.0 points per halfassed brick , x5 monkey points per monkey poop = Against halfassing! Kong: +1 point per brick, -0.5 points per halfassed brick, x8 monkey points per monkey poop = Like a boss JOIN US If you want to join the Monkey Tamers, let us know what you're planning to build, and join our colorful Google Spreadsheet for tracking your progress! In the spreadsheet, all you need to do is fill in the black squares: Write your name and difficulty mode. Enter the planned amount of bricks - for each day. You can fill those as days go by, just make sure to enter the planned amount before actually starting to lay bricks. Write the amount of bricks laid where they belong (productive bricks, halfassed bricks, monkey poop) Week 0 doesn't count, it's just there to keep the flow going *For those coming back, what's different: No changes made, let me know if you have any suggestions!

TL;DR: For Tamers coming back, the changelog is at the bottom of the post. This group is for those of us who suffer from procrastination, "the action of delaying or postponing something". Or, more specifically "the act of ruining your own life for no apparent reason". I thought it would be a good idea to get together with other serial-procrastinators and tackle this bad habit together. Concepts taken from this brilliant article on waitbutwhy.com A point based game to beat the instant gratification monkeys, help our rational decision makers get out of the dark playground through the dark woods and help both of them enjoy themselves on happy playground territory (or the rainbow of flow, if we get lucky) together. If that sentence didn't make any sense to you, go read the article (including part 2). Do it now. Don't wait until later. (Unless you're procrastinating from some other thing you should be doing right now, then do that thing first and read the article right after that.) So, now that we're all on the same page and know what's going on and who keeps us from our goals, let's teach our rational decision makers how to tame a dragon monkey!!! Monkey Tamers United Step 1 - Figure out which bricks to lay Take a task that you find yourself procrastinating on a LOT but that is actually really important to you. If you've done some challenges you probably know which of your quests give you the most trouble. If you don't, go by what's written in the article or decide for yourself. You could even chose several things if you're feeling confident. Make sure you have a clear plan of what task it is that you will not procrastinate on any longer. Then break it down into smaller tasks, if necessary. The idea is to end up with nice 30 minute bricks that you can lay down one after the other. Make sure you phrase those tasks in a non-icky way. Step 2 - Figure out when to lay the bricks Designate a certain timeframe for brick laying. It could be an hour at 9am every day, or wednesdays from 6-8 pm or any other timeframe that works for you. These first two steps are supposed to be a tool to help you be successful. If you'd rather go at it without the planning or in between doing other stuff, that's totally fine. Step 3 - Lay bricks and earn points When the time comes to lay your bricks, put them down. CONCEPTS The goal is to score higher than the monkey. Your score depends on how you lay your bricks: Productive Brick For every brick (30 minutes of focused work, not disturbed by the monkey), you will get one point. It does not matter if you lay these bricks right after the other or if you do other (productive) stuff in between. Even if you over-estimated the size of your bricks and still have work left after 30 minutes, don't fret, you still get the point. Adjust your brick sizes for next time (or live with the fact that you won't finish the task with one brick... it's up to you). Halfassed Brick If you're not happy with how you set the brick, because the monkey and rational decision maker kept dragging you in and out of the dark woods, you'll end up in mixed feeling park and your points will suffer. Monkey Poop If the monkey should manage to take over the steering wheel so much that you can't lay the brick at all and end up in the dark playgrounds, the monkey gets points instead. Of course this is all up to your reasoning, but I think you'll know whether you're in the dark woods or the dark playground (procrastination anyone?). Be honest with yourself. If you didn't finish your bricks for the day, any bricks not laid become monkey poop... Of course, if you manage to procrastinate for longer than you were supposed to have time for, feel free to add more poop, lol. Once the productive bricks are all done that day, you don't have to track any more and are free to go wild! About taking breaks You can take scheduled 5 minute breaks every brick (so you'll work 25 minutes, then have a 5 minute break. Or you could work 50 min and have a 10 min break. Taken from the Pomodoro Technique ). Just remember that the monkey will do his very best to drag you out of the woods during break time. It might help to have a plan for how you spend the break. Do what works best for you. It might also help immensely to actually set a timer that lets you know when it's time for bricks and time for breaks. There's lots of apps for that EXPERIMENTAL: Alternative way to track Productive Bricks For rewarding task completion instead of time a.k.a. "I always forget to track time". DIFFICULTY MODES Choose your own mode. Easy: +1 point per brick, +0.5 points per halfassed brick, x5 monkey points per monkey poop = The original system Normal: +1 point per brick, +0.0 points per halfassed brick , x5 monkey points per monkey poop = Against halfassing! Kong: +1 point per brick, -0.5 points per halfassed brick, x8 monkey points per monkey poop = Like a boss JOIN US If you want to join the Monkey Tamers, let us know what you're planning to build, and join our colorful Google Spreadsheet for tracking your progress! In the spreadsheet, all you need to do is fill in the black squares: Write your name and difficulty mode. Enter the planned amount of bricks - for each day. You can fill those as days go by, just make sure to enter the planned amount before actually starting to lay bricks. Write the amount of bricks laid where they belong (productive bricks, halfassed bricks, monkey poop) Week 0 doesn't count, it's just there to keep the flow going *For those coming back, what's different: No changes made, let me know if you have any suggestions!

Disclaimer: A large part of this is @Briniel's star introduction to Monkey Taming, digivolved for efficiency. TL;DR: For Tamers coming back, the changelog is at the bottom of the post. This group is for those of us who suffer from procrastination, "the action of delaying or postponing something". Or, more specifically "the act of ruining your own life for no apparent reason". I thought it would be a good idea to get together with other serial-procrastinators and tackle this bad habit together. Concepts taken from this brilliant article on waitbutwhy.com A point based game to beat the instant gratification monkeys, help our rational decision makers get out of the dark playground through the dark woods and help both of them enjoy themselves on happy playground territory (or the rainbow of flow, if we get lucky) together. If that sentence didn't make any sense to you, go read the article (including part 2). Do it now. Don't wait until later. (Unless you're procrastinating from some other thing you should be doing right now, then do that thing first and read the article right after that.) So, now that we're all on the same page and know what's going on and who keeps us from our goals, let's teach our rational decision makers how to tame a dragon monkey!!! Monkey Tamers United Step 1 - Figure out which bricks to lay Take a task that you find yourself procrastinating on a LOT but that is actually really important to you. If you've done some challenges you probably know which of your quests give you the most trouble. If you don't, go by what's written in the article or decide for yourself. You could even chose several things if you're feeling confident. Make sure you have a clear plan of what task it is that you will not procrastinate on any longer. Then break it down into smaller tasks, if necessary. The idea is to end up with nice 30 minute bricks that you can lay down one after the other. Make sure you phrase those tasks in a non-icky way. Step 2 - Figure out when to lay the bricks Designate a certain timeframe for brick laying. It could be an hour at 9am every day, or wednesdays from 6-8 pm or any other timeframe that works for you. These first two steps are supposed to be a tool to help you be successful. If you'd rather go at it without the planning or in between doing other stuff, that's totally fine. Step 3 - Lay bricks and earn points When the time comes to lay your bricks, put them down. CONCEPTS The goal is to score higher than the monkey. Your score depends on how you lay your bricks: Productive Brick For every brick (30 minutes of focused work, not disturbed by the monkey), you will get one point. It does not matter if you lay these bricks right after the other or if you do other (productive) stuff in between. Even if you over-estimated the size of your bricks and still have work left after 30 minutes, don't fret, you still get the point. Adjust your brick sizes for next time (or live with the fact that you won't finish the task with one brick... it's up to you). Halfassed Brick If you're not happy with how you set the brick, because the monkey and rational decision maker kept dragging you in and out of the dark woods, you'll end up in mixed feeling park and your points will suffer. Monkey Poop If the monkey should manage to take over the steering wheel so much that you can't lay the brick at all and end up in the dark playgrounds, the monkey gets points instead. Of course this is all up to your reasoning, but I think you'll know whether you're in the dark woods or the dark playground (procrastination anyone?). Be honest with yourself. If you didn't finish your bricks for the day, any bricks not laid become monkey poop... Of course, if you manage to procrastinate for longer than you were supposed to have time for, feel free to add more poop, lol. Once the productive bricks are all done that day, you don't have to track any more and are free to go wild! About taking breaks You can take scheduled 5 minute breaks every brick (so you'll work 25 minutes, then have a 5 minute break. Or you could work 50 min and have a 10 min break. Taken from the Pomodoro Technique ). Just remember that the monkey will do his very best to drag you out of the woods during break time. It might help to have a plan for how you spend the break. Do what works best for you. It might also help immensely to actually set a timer that lets you know when it's time for bricks and time for breaks. There's lots of apps for that EXPERIMENTAL: Alternative way to track Productive Bricks For rewarding task completion instead of time a.k.a. "I always forget to track time". DIFFICULTY MODES Choose your own mode. Easy: +1 point per brick, +0.5 points per halfassed brick, x5 monkey points per monkey poop = The original system Normal: +1 point per brick, +0.0 points per halfassed brick , x5 monkey points per monkey poop = Against halfassing! Kong: +1 point per brick, -0.5 points per halfassed brick, x8 monkey points per monkey poop = Like a boss JOIN US If you want to join the Monkey Tamers, let us know what you're planning to build, and join our colorful Google Spreadsheet for tracking your progress! In the spreadsheet, all you need to do is fill in the black squares: Write your name and difficulty mode. Enter the planned amount of bricks - for each day. You can fill those as days go by, just make sure to enter the planned amount before actually starting to lay bricks. Write the amount of bricks laid where they belong (productive bricks, halfassed bricks, monkey poop) Week 0 doesn't count, it's just there to keep the flow going *For those coming back, what's different: No changes made, let me know if you have any suggestions! @IAmInfinite @Akari @fitnessgurl

Disclaimer: A large part of this is @Briniel's star introduction to Monkey Taming, digivolved for efficiency. TL;DR: For Tamers coming back, the changelog is at the bottom of the post. This group is for those of us who suffer from procrastination, "the action of delaying or postponing something". Or, more specifically "the act of ruining your own life for no apparent reason". I thought it would be a good idea to get together with other serial-procrastinators and tackle this bad habit together. Concepts taken from this brilliant article on waitbutwhy.com A point based game to beat the instant gratification monkeys, help our rational decision makers get out of the dark playground through the dark woods and help both of them enjoy themselves on happy playground territory (or the rainbow of flow, if we get lucky) together. If that sentence didn't make any sense to you, go read the article (including part 2). Do it now. Don't wait until later. (Unless you're procrastinating from some other thing you should be doing right now, then do that thing first and read the article right after that.) So, now that we're all on the same page and know what's going on and who keeps us from our goals, let's teach our rational decision makers how to tame a dragon monkey!!! Monkey Tamers United Step 1 - Figure out which bricks to lay Take a task that you find yourself procrastinating on a LOT but that is actually really important to you. If you've done some challenges you probably know which of your quests give you the most trouble. If you don't, go by what's written in the article or decide for yourself. You could even chose several things if you're feeling confident. Make sure you have a clear plan of what task it is that you will not procrastinate on any longer. Then break it down into smaller tasks, if necessary. The idea is to end up with nice 30 minute bricks that you can lay down one after the other. Make sure you phrase those tasks in a non-icky way. Step 2 - Figure out when to lay the bricks Designate a certain timeframe for brick laying. It could be an hour at 9am every day, or wednesdays from 6-8 pm or any other timeframe that works for you. These first two steps are supposed to be a tool to help you be successful. If you'd rather go at it without the planning or in between doing other stuff, that's totally fine. Step 3 - Lay bricks and earn points When the time comes to lay your bricks, put them down. CONCEPTS The goal is to score higher than the monkey. Your score depends on how you lay your bricks: Productive Brick For every brick (30 minutes of focused work, not disturbed by the monkey), you will get one point. It does not matter if you lay these bricks right after the other or if you do other (productive) stuff in between. Even if you over-estimated the size of your bricks and still have work left after 30 minutes, don't fret, you still get the point. Adjust your brick sizes for next time (or live with the fact that you won't finish the task with one brick... it's up to you). Halfassed Brick If you're not happy with how you set the brick, because the monkey and rational decision maker kept dragging you in and out of the dark woods, you'll end up in mixed feeling park and your points will suffer. Monkey Poop If the monkey should manage to take over the steering wheel so much that you can't lay the brick at all and end up in the dark playgrounds, the monkey gets points instead. Of course this is all up to your reasoning, but I think you'll know whether you're in the dark woods or the dark playground (procrastination anyone?). Be honest with yourself. If you didn't finish your bricks for the day, any bricks not laid become monkey poop... Of course, if you manage to procrastinate for longer than you were supposed to have time for, feel free to add more poop, lol. Once the productive bricks are all done that day, you don't have to track any more and are free to go wild! About taking breaks You can take scheduled 5 minute breaks every brick (so you'll work 25 minutes, then have a 5 minute break. Or you could work 50 min and have a 10 min break. Taken from the Pomodoro Technique ). Just remember that the monkey will do his very best to drag you out of the woods during break time. It might help to have a plan for how you spend the break. Do what works best for you. It might also help immensely to actually set a timer that lets you know when it's time for bricks and time for breaks. There's lots of apps for that EXPERIMENTAL: Alternative way to track Productive Bricks For rewarding task completion instead of time a.k.a. "I always forget to track time". DIFFICULTY MODES Choose your own mode. Easy: +1 point per brick, +0.5 points per halfassed brick, x5 monkey points per monkey poop = The original system Normal: +1 point per brick, +0.0 points per halfassed brick , x5 monkey points per monkey poop = Against halfassing! Kong: +1 point per brick, -0.5 points per halfassed brick, x8 monkey points per monkey poop = Like a boss JOIN US If you want to join the Monkey Tamers, let us know what you're planning to build, and join our colorful Google Spreadsheet for tracking your progress! In the spreadsheet, all you need to do is fill in the black squares: Write your name and difficulty mode. Enter the planned amount of bricks - for each day. You can fill those as days go by, just make sure to enter the planned amount before actually starting to lay bricks. Write the amount of bricks laid where they belong (productive bricks, halfassed bricks, monkey poop) *For those coming back, what's different: We've added a spot for Week 0. It won't count towards points but it may help in getting started, testing things, or just doing something so you won't lose momentum. @IAmInfinite @Akari @fitnessgurl

Disclaimer: A large part of this is @Briniel's star introduction to Monkey Taming, digivolved for efficiency. TL;DR: For Tamers coming back, the changelog is at the bottom of the post. This group is for those of us who suffer from procrastination, "the action of delaying or postponing something". Or, more specifically "the act of ruining your own life for no apparent reason". I thought it would be a good idea to get together with other serial-procrastinators and tackle this bad habit together. Concepts taken from this brilliant article on waitbutwhy.com A point based game to beat the instant gratification monkeys, help our rational decision makers get out of the dark playground through the dark woods and help both of them enjoy themselves on happy playground territory (or the rainbow of flow, if we get lucky) together. If that sentence didn't make any sense to you, go read the article (including part 2). Do it now. Don't wait until later. (Unless you're procrastinating from some other thing you should be doing right now, then do that thing first and read the article right after that.) So, now that we're all on the same page and know what's going on and who keeps us from our goals, let's teach our rational decision makers how to tame a dragon monkey!!! Monkey Tamers United Step 1 - Figure out which bricks to lay Take a task that you find yourself procrastinating on a LOT but that is actually really important to you. If you've done some challenges you probably know which of your quests give you the most trouble. If you don't, go by what's written in the article or decide for yourself. You could even chose several things if you're feeling confident. Make sure you have a clear plan of what task it is that you will not procrastinate on any longer. Then break it down into smaller tasks, if necessary. The idea is to end up with nice 30 minute bricks that you can lay down one after the other. Make sure you phrase those tasks in a non-icky way. Step 2 - Figure out when to lay the bricks Designate a certain timeframe for brick laying. It could be an hour at 9am every day, or wednesdays from 6-8 pm or any other timeframe that works for you. These first two steps are supposed to be a tool to help you be successful. If you'd rather go at it without the planning or in between doing other stuff, that's totally fine. Step 3 - Lay bricks and earn points When the time comes to lay your bricks, put them down. CONCEPTS The goal is to score higher than the monkey. Your score depends on how you lay your bricks: Productive Brick For every brick (30 minutes of focused work, not disturbed by the monkey), you will get one point. It does not matter if you lay these bricks right after the other or if you do other (productive) stuff in between. Even if you over-estimated the size of your bricks and still have work left after 30 minutes, don't fret, you still get the point. Adjust your brick sizes for next time (or live with the fact that you won't finish the task with one brick... it's up to you). Halfassed Brick If you're not happy with how you set the brick, because the monkey and rational decision maker kept dragging you in and out of the dark woods, you'll end up in mixed feeling park and your points will suffer. Monkey Poop If the monkey should manage to take over the steering wheel so much that you can't lay the brick at all and end up in the dark playgrounds, the monkey gets points instead. Of course this is all up to your reasoning, but I think you'll know whether you're in the dark woods or the dark playground (procrastination anyone?). Be honest with yourself. If you didn't finish your bricks for the day, any bricks not laid become monkey poop... Of course, if you manage to procrastinate for longer than you were supposed to have time for, feel free to add more poop, lol. Once the productive bricks are all done that day, you don't have to track any more and are free to go wild! About taking breaks You can take scheduled 5 minute breaks every brick (so you'll work 25 minutes, then have a 5 minute break. Or you could work 50 min and have a 10 min break. Taken from the Pomodoro Technique ). Just remember that the monkey will do his very best to drag you out of the woods during break time. It might help to have a plan for how you spend the break. Do what works best for you. It might also help immensely to actually set a timer that lets you know when it's time for bricks and time for breaks. There's lots of apps for that EXPERIMENTAL: Alternative way to track Productive Bricks For rewarding task completion instead of time a.k.a. "I always forget to track time". DIFFICULTY MODES Choose your own mode. Easy: +1 point per brick, +0.5 points per halfassed brick, x5 monkey points per monkey poop = The original system Normal: +1 point per brick, +0.0 points per halfassed brick , x5 monkey points per monkey poop = Against halfassing! Kong: +1 point per brick, -0.5 points per halfassed brick, x8 monkey points per monkey poop = Like a boss JOIN US If you want to join the Monkey Tamers, let us know what you're planning to build, and join our colorful Google Spreadsheet for tracking your progress! In the spreadsheet, all you need to do is fill in the black squares: Write your name and difficulty mode. Enter the planned amount of bricks - for each day. You can fill those as days go by, just make sure to enter the planned amount before actually starting to lay bricks. Write the amount of bricks laid where they belong (productive bricks, halfassed bricks, monkey poop) *For those coming back, what's different: If you don't finish your bricks for the day, any bricks not laid become monkey poop. Of course, if you manage to procrastinate for longer than you were supposed to have time for, feel free to add more poop, lol. There's an experimental alternative way to track Productive Bricks, for anyone to try out. It involves rewarding the completion of tasks more than the duration a.k.a. "I always forget to track time". Details right above the difficulty modes. Let us know if you plan to use it! @fitnessgurl @maegs @Schaengel @Mad Hatter @fiOWNya @~RedStone~ @lucky fire dragon @jmk @LadyShello

Disclaimer: A large part of this is @Briniel's star introduction to Monkey Taming, digivolved for efficiency. TL;DR: For Tamers coming back, the changelog is at the bottom of the post. This group is for those of us who suffer from procrastination, "the action of delaying or postponing something". Or, more specifically "the act of ruining your own life for no apparent reason". I thought it would be a good idea to get together with other serial-procrastinators and tackle this bad habit together. Concepts taken from this brilliant article on waitbutwhy.com A point based game to beat the instant gratification monkeys, help our rational decision makers get out of the dark playground through the dark woods and help both of them enjoy themselves on happy playground territory (or the rainbow of flow, if we get lucky) together. If that sentence didn't make any sense to you, go read the article (including part 2). Do it now. Don't wait until later. (Unless you're procrastinating from some other thing you should be doing right now, then do that thing first and read the article right after that.) So, now that we're all on the same page and know what's going on and who keeps us from our goals, let's teach our rational decision makers how to tame a dragon monkey!!! Monkey Tamers United Step 1 - Figure out which bricks to lay Take a task that you find yourself procrastinating on a LOT but that is actually really important to you. If you've done some challenges you probably know which of your quests give you the most trouble. If you don't, go by what's written in the article or decide for yourself. You could even chose several things if you're feeling confident. Make sure you have a clear plan of what task it is that you will not procrastinate on any longer. Then break it down into smaller tasks, if necessary. The idea is to end up with nice 30 minute bricks that you can lay down one after the other. Make sure you phrase those tasks in a non-icky way. Step 2 - Figure out when to lay the bricks Designate a certain timeframe for brick laying. It could be an hour at 9am every day, or wednesdays from 6-8 pm or any other timeframe that works for you. Write down the time and tasks here in this thread. These first two steps are supposed to be a tool to help you be successful. If you'd rather go at it without the planning or in between doing other stuff, that's totally fine. Step 3 - Lay bricks and earn points When the time comes to lay your bricks, put them down. CONCEPTS The goal is to score higher than the monkey. Your score depends on how you lay your bricks: Productive Brick For every brick (30 minutes of focused work, not disturbed by the monkey), you will get one point. It does not matter if you lay these bricks right after the other or if you do other (productive) stuff in between. Even if you over-estimated the size of your bricks and still have work left after 30 minutes, don't fret, you still get the point. Adjust your brick sizes for next time (or live with the fact that you won't finish the task with one brick... it's up to you). Halfassed Brick If you're not happy with how you set the brick, because the monkey and rational decision maker kept dragging you in and out of the dark woods, you'll end up in mixed feeling park and your points will suffer. Monkey Poop If the monkey should manage to take over the steering wheel so much that you can't lay the brick at all and end up in the dark playgrounds, the monkey gets points instead. Of course this is all up to your reasoning, but I think you'll know whether you're in the dark woods or the dark playground. Be honest with yourself. Everyone needs to have genuine fun regularly. How is fun genuine? You know you deserve it, you made time for it, and you're not procrastinating! But if you haven't finished your bricks, it becomes monkey poop... Track the monkey poop while you haven't finished with the productive bricks. Once the productive bricks are all done that day, you don't have to track any more and are free to go wild! About taking breaks You can take scheduled 5 minute breaks every brick (so you'll work 25 minutes, then have a 5 minute break. Or you could work 50 min and have a 10 min break. Taken from the Pomodoro Technique ). Just remember that the monkey will do his very best to drag you out of the woods during break time. It might help to have a plan for how you spend the break. Do what works best for you. It might also help immensely to actually set a timer that lets you know when it's time for bricks and time for breaks. There's lots of apps for that EXPERIMENTAL: Alternative way to track Productive Bricks For rewarding task completion instead of time. Estimate the amount of bricks needed for each task you need to get done (blocks of 30 minutes of focused work, not disturbed by the monkey). After completing a task, you may enter the estimated amount of bricks instead of counting the actual time it took to finish it. Remember to still count halfassed bricks and monkey poop. If you notice a task took a lot more Productive Bricks than you estimated, use the actual amount. If you notice a task took a lot less Productive Bricks than you estimated, use the middle point between the actual amount and estimate. (Why: daunting tasks probably weigh more) DIFFICULTY MODES Choose your own mode. Easy: +1 point per brick, +0.5 points per halfassed brick, x5 monkey points per monkey poop = The original system Normal: +1 point per brick, +0.0 points per halfassed brick , x5 monkey points per monkey poop = Against halfassing! Kong: +1 point per brick, -0.5 points per halfassed brick, x8 monkey points per monkey poop = Like a boss JOIN US If you want to join the Monkey Tamers, let us know what you're planning to build, and join our colorful Google Spreadsheet for tracking your progress! In the spreadsheet, all you need to do is fill in the black squares: Write your name and difficulty mode. Enter the planned amount of bricks - for each day. You can fill those as days go by, just make sure to enter the planned amount before actually starting to lay bricks. Write the amount of bricks laid where they belong (productive bricks, halfassed bricks, monkey poop) *For those coming back, what's different: There's an experimental alternative way to track Productive Bricks, for anyone to try out (I will!). It involves rewarding the completion of tasks more than the duration. Details right above the "difficulty modes". Let us know if you plan to use it!

Disclaimer: A large part of this is @Briniel's star introduction to Monkey Taming, digivolved for efficiency. TL;DR: For Tamers coming back, the changelog is at the bottom of the post. This group is for those of us who suffer from procrastination, "the action of delaying or postponing something". Or, more specifically "the act of ruining your own life for no apparent reason". I thought it would be a good idea to get together with other serial-procrastinators and tackle this bad habit together. Concepts taken from this brilliant article on waitbutwhy.com A point based game to beat the instant gratification monkeys, help our rational decision makers get out of the dark playground through the dark woods and help both of them enjoy themselves on happy playground territory (or the rainbow of flow, if we get lucky) together. If that sentence didn't make any sense to you, go read the article (including part 2). Do it now. Don't wait until later. (Unless you're procrastinating from some other thing you should be doing right now, then do that thing first and read the article right after that.) So, now that we're all on the same page and know what's going on and who keeps us from our goals, let's teach our rational decision makers how to tame a dragon monkey!!! Monkey Tamers United Step 1 - Figure out which bricks to lay Take a task that you find yourself procrastinating on a LOT but that is actually really important to you. If you've done some challenges you probably know which of your quests give you the most trouble. If you don't, go by what's written in the article or decide for yourself. You could even chose several things if you're feeling confident. Make sure you have a clear plan of what task it is that you will not procrastinate on any longer. Then break it down into smaller tasks, if necessary. The idea is to end up with nice 30 minute bricks that you can lay down one after the other. Make sure you phrase those tasks in a non-icky way. Step 2 - Figure out when to lay the bricks Designate a certain timeframe for brick laying. It could be an hour at 9am every day, or wednesdays from 6-8 pm or any other timeframe that works for you. Write down the time and tasks here in this thread. These first two steps are supposed to be a tool to help you be successful. If you'd rather go at it without the planning or in between doing other stuff, that's totally fine. Step 3 - Lay bricks and earn points When the time comes to lay your bricks, put them down. CONCEPTS The goal is to score higher than the monkey. Your score depends on how you lay your bricks: Productive Brick For every brick (30 minutes of focused work, not disturbed by the monkey), you will get one point. It does not matter if you lay these bricks right after the other or if you do other (productive) stuff in between. Even if you over-estimated the size of your bricks and still have work left after 30 minutes, don't fret, you still get the point. Adjust your brick sizes for next time (or live with the fact that you won't finish the task with one brick... it's up to you). Halfassed Brick If you're not happy with how you set the brick, because the monkey and rational decision maker kept dragging you in and out of the dark woods, you'll end up in mixed feeling park and your points will suffer. Monkey Poop If the monkey should manage to take over the steering wheel so much that you can't lay the brick at all and end up in the dark playgrounds, the monkey gets points instead. Of course this is all up to your reasoning, but I think you'll know whether you're in the dark woods or the dark playground. Be honest with yourself. Everyone needs to have genuine fun regularly. How is fun genuine? You know you deserve it, you made time for it, and you're not procrastinating! But if you haven't finished your bricks, it becomes monkey poop... Track the monkey poop while you haven't finished with the productive bricks. Once the productive bricks are all done that day, you don't have to track any more and are free to go wild! About taking breaks You can take scheduled 5 minute breaks every brick (so you'll work 25 minutes, then have a 5 minute break. Or you could work 50 min and have a 10 min break. Taken from the Pomodoro Technique ). Just remember that the monkey will do his very best to drag you out of the woods during break time. It might help to have a plan for how you spend the break. Do what works best for you. It might also help immensely to actually set a timer that lets you know when it's time for bricks and time for breaks. There's lots of apps for that DIFFICULTY MODES Choose your own mode. Easy: +1 point per brick, +0.5 points per halfassed brick, x5 monkey points per monkey poop = The original system Normal: +1 point per brick, +0.0 points per halfassed brick , x5 monkey points per monkey poop = Against halfassing! Kong: +1 point per brick, -0.5 points per halfassed brick, x8 monkey points per monkey poop = Like a boss JOIN US If you want to join the Monkey Tamers, let us know what you're planning to build, and join our colorful Google Spreadsheet for tracking your progress! In the spreadsheet, all you need to do is fill in the black squares: Write your name and difficulty mode. Write the planned amount of bricks - for each day. You can fill those as days go by, just make sure to write the planned amount before actually starting to lay bricks. Write the amount of bricks laid where they belong (productive bricks, halfassed bricks, monkey poop) *For those coming back, what's different: No more planning free time before we've finished laying our productive bricks. The only monkey stuff we'll be tracking is poop. Ew. Once the productive bricks are all done that day, you don't have to track any more and are free to go wild! The difficulty mode names have been changed for the sake of our brains.

Disclaimer: A large part of this is @Briniel's star introduction to Monkey Taming, digivolved for efficiency. This group is for those of us who suffer from procrastination, "the action of delaying or postponing something". Or, more specifically "the act of ruining your own life for no apparent reason". I thought it would be a good idea to get together with other serial-procrastinators and tackle this bad habit together. Concepts taken from this brilliant article on waitbutwhy.com A point based game to beat the instant gratification monkeys, help our rational decision makers get out of the dark playground through the dark woods and help both of them enjoy themselves on happy playground territory (or the rainbow of flow, if we get lucky) together. If that sentence didn't make any sense to you, go read the article (including part 2). Do it now. Don't wait until later. (Unless you're procrastinating from some other thing you should be doing right now, then do that thing first and read the article right after that.) So, now that we're all on the same page and know what's going on and who keeps us from our goals, let's teach our rational decision makers how to tame a dragon monkey!!! Monkey Tamers United Step 1 - Figure out which bricks to lay Take a task that you find yourself procrastinating on a LOT but that is actually really important to you. If you've done some challenges you probably know which of your quests give you the most trouble. If you don't, go by what's written in the article or decide for yourself. You could even chose several things if you're feeling confident. Make sure you have a clear plan of what task it is that you will not procrastinate on any longer. Then break it down into smaller tasks, if necessary. The idea is to end up with nice 30 minute bricks that you can lay down one after the other. Make sure you phrase those tasks in a non-icky way. Step 2 - Figure out when to lay the bricks Designate a certain timeframe for brick laying. It could be an hour at 9am every day, or wednesdays from 6-8 pm or any other timeframe that works for you. Write down the time and tasks here in this thread. These first two steps are supposed to be a tool to help you be successful. If you'd rather go at it without the planning or in between doing other stuff, that's totally fine. Step 3 - Lay bricks and earn points When the time comes to lay your bricks, put them down. CONCEPTS The goal is to score higher than the monkey. Your score depends on how you lay your bricks: Productive Brick For every brick (30 minutes of focused work, not disturbed by the monkey), you will get one point. It does not matter if you lay these bricks right after the other or if you do other (productive) stuff in between. Even if you over-estimated the size of your bricks and still have work left after 30 minutes, don't fret, you still get the point. Adjust your brick sizes for next time (or live with the fact that you won't finish the task with one brick... it's up to you). Halfassed Brick If you're not happy with how you set the brick, because the monkey and rational decision maker kept dragging you in and out of the dark woods, you'll end up in mixed feeling park and your points will suffer. Monkey Poop If the monkey should manage to take over the steering wheel so much that you can't lay the brick at all and end up in the dark playgrounds, the monkey gets points instead. Of course this is all up to your reasoning, but I think you'll know whether you're in the dark woods or the dark playground. Be honest with yourself. Monkey Brick (New) Everyone needs to have genuine fun regularly. How is fun genuine? You know you deserve it, you made time for it, and you're not procrastinating! If it doesn't fit into genuine fun, it becomes monkey poop... Track those monkey bricks while you haven't finished with the productive bricks. Once the productive bricks are all done that day, you don't have to track any more monkey bricks (unless you want to, because you hadn't had fun time yet and it won't turn into poop!) About taking breaks You can take scheduled 5 minute breaks every brick (so you'll work 25 minutes, then have a 5 minute break. Or you could work 50 min and have a 10 min break. Taken from the Pomodoro Technique ). Just remember that the monkey will do his very best to drag you out of the woods during break time. It might help to have a plan for how you spend the break. Do what works best for you. It might also help immensely to actually set a timer that lets you know when it's time for bricks and time for breaks. There's lots of apps for that DIFFICULTY MODES Choose your own mode. Normal: +1 point per brick, +0.5 points per halfassed brick, x5 monkey points per monkey poop = The original system Hard: +1 point per brick, +0.0 points per halfassed brick , x5 monkey points per monkey poop = Against halfassing! Kong: +1 point per brick, -0.5 points per halfassed brick, x8 monkey points per monkey poop = Like a boss If you want to join the Monkey Tamers, let us know what you're planning to build, and join our colorful Google Spreadsheet for tracking your progress! In the spreadsheet, all you need to do is fill in the black squares: Write your name and difficulty mode. Write the planned amount of bricks and monkey bricks (a.k.a. fun) - that you plan for each day. You can fill those as days go by, just make sure to write the planned amount before actually starting to lay bricks. Write the amount of bricks laid where they belong (productive bricks, halfassed bricks, monkey bricks)

Hello to everyone out there who wants to get stuff done!! This group is for those of us who suffer from procrastination, "the action of delaying or postponing something". Or, more specifically "the act of ruining your own life for no apparent reason". I thought it would be a good idea to get together with other serial-procrastinators and tackle this bad habit together. I also thought it would be an awesome idea to use this brilliant article on waitbutwhy.com to create a point based game to beat the instant gratification monkeys, help our rational decision makers get out of the dark playground through the dark woods and help both of them enjoy themselves on happy playground territory (or the rainbow of flow, if we get lucky) together. If that sentences didn't make any sense to you, go read the article (including part 2). Do it now. Don't wait until later. (Unless you're procrastinating from some other thing you should be doing right now, then do that thing first and read the article right after that.) So, now that we're all on the same page and know what's going on and who keeps us from our goals, let's teach our rational decision makers how to tame a dragon monkey!!! Monkey Tamers United Step 1 - figure out which bricks to lay. Take a task that you find yourself procrastinating on a LOT but that is actually really important to you. If you've done some challenges you probably know which of your quests give you the most trouble. If you don't, go by what's written in the article or decide for yourself. You could even chose several things if you're feeling confident. Just make sure you have a clear plan of what task it is that you will not procrastinate on any longer. Then break it down into smaller tasks, if necessary. The idea is to end up with nice 30 minute bricks that you can lay down one after the other. Make sure you phrase those tasks in a non-icky way. Step 2 - figure out when to lay the bricks. Designate a certain timeframe for brick laying. It could be an hour at 9am every day, or wednesdays from 6-8 pm or any other timeframe that works for you. Write down the time and tasks here in this thread. These first two steps are supposed to be a tool to help you be successfull. If you'd rather go at it without the planning or in between doing other stuff, that's totally fine. Step 3 - lay bricks (and earn points). When the time comes to lay your bricks, put them down. For every brick (30 minutes of focused work, not disturbed by the monkey), you will get one point. For the next brick you lay, you'll get 2 points (yay, bonus points!). The next brick is worth 3 points. And so on. It does not matter if you lay these bricks right after the other or if you do other (productive) stuff in between. As long as you stay our of the dark playground, it's all good and you get more points on every new brick you lay that day. Even if you over-estimated the size of your bricks and still have work left after 30 minutes, don't fret, you still get the points. Adjust your brick sizes for next time (or live with the fact that you won't finish the task with one brick... it's up to you). If you're not happy with how you set the brick, because the monkey and rational decision maker kept dragging you in and out of the dark woods, you'll end up in mixed feeling park. You get 0.5 points for the effort you put in, but your bonus counter is reset to zero. So the next productive brick will again only yield 1 point. If the monkey should manage to take over the steering wheel so much that you can't lay the brick at all and end up in the dark playgrouns, the monkey gets 5 points and your counter is reset to zero. Of course this is all up to your reasoning, but I think you'll know whether you're in the dark woods or the dark playground. Be honest with yourself. If you need to, you can take scheduled 5 minute breaks every brick (so you'll work 25 minutes, then have a 5 minute break. Or you could work 50 minutes and have a 10 minute break. If you know the pomodoro method, you know where this is coming from ). Just remember that the monkey will do his very best to drag you out of the woods during break time. It might help to have a plan for how you spend the break. Do what works best for you. It might also help immensly to actually set a timer that lets you know when it's time for bricks and time for breaks. There's lots of apps for that So, to recap the point system: 1st 30 productive minutes - 1 pt2nd 30 productive minutes - 2 pts3rd 30 prodcutive minutes - 3 pts ...30 half-assed minutes - 0.5 pts, counter reset30 monkey minutes - 5 pts for the monkeys, counter reset (should this double as well? not sure yet)At the end of every day, post your score of how many points you earned and how many points the monkey earned and reset your bonus points counter. I will add the numbers to the counter in the second post. The goal is, of course, to earn more points than the monkeys do. You can see it as a collective effort or you can calculate the percentage of time spend in the dark woods vs. the dark playground (ommiting the half-assed bricks for simplicity) and try to beat other people's scores. Whatever motivates you the most If you want to join in, just post your plans and score here. If you have any suggestions, feedback, ideas, just let me know. I think this system might work well, but I'll be more than happy to build in any means to make it even more awesome Also, if you know of other ressources on procrastination or anything you think might be helpful for your team mates, plase share, I'll make a collection of links in the third post. And of course, any experiences, ideas, strategies, funny gifs shared are more than welcome That's it for now. I can't wait to see how this will go